6 Tips for Planning a New Garden

Gardening is counted as favourite hobby of kids at their childhood, but mostly they never continue it later on. Planting flowers and plants in your own garden is very easy and inexpensive way to add beauty to your home and engaging yourself in a creative job.  When you think about designing your own garden for the very first time, different things come in your mind related to design, flowers, area and arrangement etc. it is not easy to decide about all these elements in just few minutes, you need to consider some important factors before making the final decision.

Selection of area: first and most important thing that counts when you are planning a home garden is selection and evaluation of area where you want to grow plants and flowers. For different kind of flowers and plants, different areas are required. If they are not provided with their preferred growing conditions then they will not sustain for long time period. As vegetable and flowering garden needs at least 5 to 6 hours of exposure to sun, while some others grow best in shady areas.

Garden Design: if you are new in this field and are planning to grow a new garden at your home, you must think about the design. There are different designs to select from, you can explore about them from your nearby and ask for suggestions about designs from gardeners. Mostly people prefer these design, landscape, dry garden, wet garden, organic garden, wildlife garden, rooftop garden and urban garden etc. it depends on preferences that what you want to have in your design.

Land and soil: if you are planning to grow plants directly on land instead of pots, then it is important to test soil first and make sure that it is rich in minerals and other elements which are important for healthy growth of flowers and plants. Soils is consisted on sand, clay and silt, according to experts suitable soil for gardening consist of 40% sand, 20% clay and 49% silt. You can take sample of your soil and determine its quality with tests.

Moisture available in climate: it is important to keep an eye on soil moisture, as in a small area variations in soil can be found easily. Location of your house also matters as if you are living at bottom of hills; there are chances that soil will carry moisture. If your soil is very heavy then you need to work on bed, it can help you in your purpose. Different moisture levels are preferred for different kinds of garden; therefore before growing plants you must determine your needs and match them with conditions.

Making a bed: when you select a site for gardening and it is already filled in grass then it is important to clear it before planting new flowers on it. Tilling without removing this grass or weeds is also possible but for this you need to start your work in fall, so that grass decompose naturally till next season. If you find that grass has emerged in spring, you must smother it for better results. This also help you in improving  quality of soil, because while making bed you can remove sod easily and made other amendments to it as well.

Keep an eye on your budget: for beginners it is important to keep eye on their budget while planning out about new garden. It is necessary to adopt realistic approach and spend according to size of their pocket while spending on seeds, land, plants and decorations etc. although gardening does cost high when it is started at small scale, but to design a  large garden, filled with expensive plants and flowers. You have to spend lot more than your expectations and this cost factor continues as you need to maintain them as well. If you choose to design your garden yourself without external help then there are chances to save some money.

Planning a new garden is always a fun as you can ask help from your kids or grandkids for this purpose and they will love to help you as well. But at some points you will realise that expert opinion is needed, it will ask for some expenses but small amount can save you from destroyed garden later on.

This is a guest post from Lewis Hooker who is currently trying to cut down labour costs using best self checkout lane.

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